Asthma and Child Abuse

Today's internet health item is a report that children are more likely to have asthma if they are physically or sexually abused. Hmmmmm. Children are more likely to have asthma if there are electric lights in their houses. Or sunshine outside the window. The stunning implication of this example of "how to lie with statistics" is that you now get to suspect your neighbors if you see their kids running around with a ventolin inhaler in their pockets. What an irresponsible headline! I'm pretty sensitive about this because my youngest child has asthma. He had one, very scary, hospitalizable attack when he had the flu as an 18 month old- then didn't have another one until he came home from a camp that had used the same crappy mattresses for 20 years- lumpy moldy camp mattresses. No sooner was the front door shut behind him upon his return home then his alarmed father and I could hear him wheezing from across the room! By 22, he outgrew it though his nose still stuffs up when he comes over and I haven't vacuumed the cat hair up. He went through allergy shots (testing allergic to cat hair and dust and mold, just like me) and doctor visits for tubes in his ears and all the resultant problems of allergies. But NO ONE ever abused him. In fact, one reason he might have gotten asthma was that his room was kept very clean when he was a baby. I used lysol to clean the vinyl floor and the marimekko wallpaper in his room. He was spotlessly washed up after playing outside. His hands were washed well before eating. His food was clean. His toys were kept clean. He was hugged and read to and was generally adored by everyone in his family. He just drew the black bean and through the genetic roulette, inherited my asthma and allergies. I am nothing short of FURIOUS that any headline would imply my beloved kid, who is not little anymore but beloved as is his sister, would have been abused. Or that anyone would assume that he could have been abused simply because he had asthma. Children who are abused may live in environments that lead to asthma. They may inherit their asthma. Who knows? If you were a kid with asthma, would you want this headline out there? There are so many things factored into asthma, and we really don't know why there is an increase. But this is too much. Just too much. If a child is being abused, asthma is actually one of their secondary problems. Kids can outgrow asthma (particularly boys do), but they cannot outgrow the psychological and physical trauma of abuse.